Sesame Free Maple-Ginger Pear Crumble Bars
Warm spiced pears, a double hit of maple syrup, and a buttery oat crumble layered into a sliceable bar — this is the kind of baking project that makes your kitchen smell absolutely incredible. The filling gets cooked down on the stovetop with fresh ginger and a spoonful of tapioca starch until it turns glossy and jammy, so every bite has that concentrated, almost caramel-like pear flavor. Rice flour and tapioca starch stand in for all-purpose flour, giving the crust and crumble a tender, slightly crisp texture that holds together beautifully once cooled. For anyone navigating a sesame-free kitchen, these bars are a genuinely easy win — every ingredient is straightforward, with no tahini, sesame oil, or hidden seed-based additions to watch out for. The same oat-and-rice-flour mixture does double duty as both the pressed base and the crumbly topping, which keeps the process simple and the cleanup minimal. Let them cool fully before slicing and you'll get clean, sturdy bars that are just as good packed into a lunchbox as they are served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
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Learn more →Ingredients
9 servings
For the crust and crumble
- 1 cup rolled oats
- ¾ cup rice flour
- ¼ cup tapioca starch
- ⅓ cup pure maple syrup
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into ½-inch cubes
For the pear filling
- 3 medium ripe pears (about 1 ½ lb), peeled, cored, and cut into ½-inch dice
- 3 tbsp pure maple syrup
- 1 tbsp fresh ginger, finely grated
- 1 tbsp tapioca starch
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter
Instructions
- 1
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Line a 9×9-inch baking pan with parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on two opposite sides to use as handles for lifting the bars out later.
- 2
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the rolled oats, rice flour, tapioca starch (the 1/4 cup amount), baking powder, and salt. Scatter the cold butter cubes over the dry mixture and work them in with a pastry cutter or your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse, clumpy crumbs with some pea-sized pieces of butter remaining. Drizzle in the 1/3 cup maple syrup and stir with a fork until the mixture just comes together into a crumbly, slightly sticky dough.
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